A friend lent me this book recently and I think it is so encouraging! If you’ve ever wondered what happens after we die, this book is amazing. The author suffered severe complications after an accident that left him comatose for some time. During this time, he visited the Spirit World three times and returned with a message to share. God lives and He loves us as His precious children. I loved the idea that we will speak spirit-to-spirit, as well as verbally, on the other side of the veil. There are times when we feel a hint of that closeness even here on earth…when we hold a child or sit with a loved one. How wonderful to contemplate that this intimacy and feeling of ‘oneness’ is just a sample of what we will enjoy in the hereafter.

I’ve read reviews that said that the book is disjointed and poorly written. I disagree. The book is well written given that Mr. Richardson isn’t a writer. It is clear that he is telling the story of what happened to him in an honest and straight-forward way. He was instructed to share some things and he is obeying that instruction in his writing.

I was surprised to read a message specifically directed at Americans in The Message. Mr. Richardson writes that Liberty (free-will, free-agency, agency, free choice) is one of the, if not THE, most precious gift God gave us apart from His Son. Without the freedom to freely choose right or wrong, we are simply fancy pawns in a supernatural chess game, at best. Likewise, our nation is built on the principle of Liberty and we are tasked with protecting that divine right.

The end of the book has a wonderful chapter devoted to our task “in the mean time”: Service. We are to serve one another, and in doing so emulate Christ.

I loved the book (much preferred it to the current “best sellers” about near-death experiences). It was easy reading (I finished it in about 3 hours with interruptions) and has a powerful message, not only about what life will be like after we die, but about how we should live while we’re HERE.